FOREST HILLS BOOTLEG SOCIETY

Four social outcasts turn their love of anime into fast cash at the price of their identities and boundaries in this ode to the early 2000s.

Brooke Imafidon's, Melissa Cho's, Kelly Nahas', and Maggie Hilcot’s lives change when they purchase a bootleg anime DVD. Initial shock over the feature’s sexual elements turns to fascination and entrepreneurism as they sell burned copies to classmates at their Christian boarding school. Sales success brings money as well as attention and interpersonal drama, complicated by a love triangle among the four girls. The story takes place in Forest Hills, California, a small town with a repressive, toxic culture. Bullies, cliques, and homophobic teachers represent some of the influences pushing the protagonists and others to alienation and quiet yearning. Skillful, detailed art reminiscent of the girls’ beloved genre brings the cast to life through expressive body language as well as paneling that changes in scale and perspective. One-page asides flesh out each protagonist’s backstory as well as those of background characters who have their own rich inner lives. Names and physical appearances—while somewhat obscured by the green, black, and white palette—cue ethnic diversity in the main cast, but, contrasting with the treatment of sexuality and faith, this element is not developed in any depth. This is a witty and absorbing examination of a community’s painful experiences with loneliness, queer romance, and strangely bewitching anime.

An evocative, tender, character-driven coming-of-age story.